The Healing Powers of Group Therapy.

Every year for the last 4? ....or is it 5?......years me and a group of girl friends go on a long weekend trip to.....somewhere away from home.

We went to New York the first year....in FEBRUARY! NOT smart. We had blizzard conditions, I had the flu, and although we made the most of it and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves....we decided that enduring New York in the middle of winter really wasn't one of our more brilliant ideas. So we've been going to Florida in April ever since. Ahhhhh....now THAT'S more like it!

These trips are cathartic. Healing. Relaxing. In just 5 days/4 nights we all metamorph from ragged run down mothers and wives into individuals with a side of "hot babe"....at least in our minds. We all put on our bikinis....avoid the mirrors....and pretend we're hot babes with out an ounce of cellulite nor a sign of stretch marks.

We're delusional.

And we're ok with that.

We spend the days relaxing on the beach in the ocean, sand, and sunshine...... and pretending to be hot beach babes.....

.....and then spend the evenings in our group therapy sessions. And for those of you who are dollar conscious....the cost of a 4 hour session is merely the cost of a fifth of vodka...and a bottle of cranberry juice...and maybe a little pineapple juice to splash in there.....for a little tropical flare.....Cheap! Where else can you find that kind of healing at that kind of price? Seriously?

So, during this past year's trip you can only imagine our delight when at the tail end of a shopping excursion we saw this hanging in the display window......

Our squeals of excitement attracted every canine within a 1/2 mile radius. They were perfect. They were sparkly. They had one for each of us. We turned from "hot babe" to "screamingclappingjumpingupanddown school girls" instantly.

And so our trip motto was born.

"Group Therapy"

Perfect.

Last year...2007.... every one of us on the trip was also running and training together for the Detroit Marathon. There were 6 of us.

This year, however, T and I were the only two on our trip from our original running group dumb brave enough to not learn our lesson the first time around to repeat the grueling process of marathon training. Traci recruited a few more suckers participants....her 2 BILs and her old babysitterturnedfriend..... and so we are now up to 5 in our group of marathon buddies. So when T and I saw those shirts our wheels started turning. We decided then and there that this would also be our running motto....well....for us girls anyway.....cuz what guy is gonna want to run in a sparkly shirt....

And that brings me to the point of this post. Yesterday T, B, and I all gathered at my house after lunch to decorate our matching marathon shirts. We leave on Friday for Chicago and the marathon is a mere 5 days away. It was time. We bought matching shirts in a bright lemony greeny limey sorta color. We bought sparkly gems and iron on letters. I, of course, didn't think to take pictures of us in the process of making our master pieces...

But here's mine......the finished product.....

Front....

Back...

Can I just say.....

We may be crossing that finish line with a limp....

But we'll be limping in style......

Cuz these shirts are HAWT!

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